Thick as Thieves: Leach Says Stealing Signs Common

College football can be unpredictable.

Just ask Todd Graham and the Arizona State Sun Devils whose season started with expectations of Pac-12 championships and talks of a playoff berth and morphed into accusations of stealing signs after Oregon’s double overtime win over the Devils last week in Tempe.

Now ASU (4-4, 2-3) hits the road again, heading to the northwest to take on Washington State (5-3, 3-2). The Cougars also fell victim to a close loss to 11th-ranked Stanford last weekend.

Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost was the first to publicly point the finger about the sign stealing but Utah critiqued ASU’s ethics and even switched their signals in-game before the Utes pulled away late for a 34-17 win back on October 17th in Salt Lake City.

Earlier this week Graham was asked about the incidents.

“Do we steal signs? Yeah, we do,” he explained on the Pac-12 weekly conference call. “Do people steal our signs? Yeah, they do. There’s nothing illegal about (stealing signs).”

Washington State head coach Mike Leach had some thoughts on the issue, as well.

“They’re right about one thing,” Leach told Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat about the Sun Devils. “People try to steal signals as long as it’s legal. That’s the way it is…hopefully it’s not an issue in our game.”

He said he hasn’t stolen any signs from ASU in the past.

“I don’t know to what extent Arizona State does it or how they go about it,” Leach said. “I imagine those are deeply guarded secrets in the bowels of Sun Devil lair…if you get any good solutions about trying to steal the signals try to let me know something before Friday so I can make arrangements.”

The saga continues Saturday afternoon.